INV, which launched in January, is the first non-geographically specific fintech accelerator, open to startups from anywhere in the world, with a particular focus on four of the world’s major fintech hubs: Silicon Valley, Europe, Israel and New York.

The partnership between Bank Innovation, one of the world’s leading fintech strategy news services, and Fiserv, a leading provider of financial services technology, will foster startup success via INV.

INV’s partners, aside from Fiserv, include U.S. Bank, BB&T, BBVA, and Navy Federal Credit Union. Additionally, the following companies have made their application programming interfaces (APIs) available to INV startups: Xignite, ChartIQ, Estimize, Open Bank Project, QuantConnect, StockTwits, OutsideIQ, and Streamdata.io.

The first INV class was comprised of Dyme, a savings tool for messaging platforms; GoldBean, a wealth management and financial education service; CrossCues, a marketing and servicing tool that employs machine learning; Hermetic, a security provider for digital banking; and Spare, a cash-access app looking to replace the ATM.

Philip Ryan is Senior Editor of Bank Innovation and Senior Director of INV Fintech. He began covering financial services in 2012 and has more than 15 years' experience in online journalism, which makes him quite old. He can be reached at pryan@royalmedia.com.